It is customary for numerous articles of commerce to be shipped in bale form. Since a bale is of a generally square parallelepiped shape, such a form is conducive to various modes of shipment. In particular, the textile industry has traditionally shipped bales of textile materials, such as, staple or filamentary yarns, fibers, tows, or the like, in bale form whereby the material is compressed, covered by a suitable covering member and retained in a compressed state by means of tensioned steel straps encompassing the bale along its peripheral surfaces in the length, width and depth dimensions thereof. Compression of such textile materials further aids in their shipment in commerce inasmuch as the bales then occupy less space.
A problem exists, however, that since the bales are maintained in a compressed state by virtue of the steel straps, the straps themselves will be under a significant amount of tension due to the tendency of the compressed bale to relax and/or due to the inherent springiness of the steel straps themselves. In order to access the material of the bale, therefore, it is typically necessary for an operator to manually sever each steel strap. Upon severing, the tension of the strap is suddenly released thereby causing the straps to lash outwardly away from the bale. As may be appreciated, such outward lashing of the strap upon severing not only may present a physical hazard to the operator who is severing the straps (due to the sharp-edged nature of the straps) but may also be a hazard to persons in the vicinity of the bale since the straps may have sufficient force to recoil to an opposite side of the bale. Any person on the opposite side of the bale during severing of the straps therefore may be struck with one or more of the straps causing potentially serious injuries.